My first pizza is baking in the oven, along with mini plum and sage pot pies. I am resisting the urge to bake cookies. But you know, the oven is hot, and I might as well not waste heat. The problem is that I can't decide which cookies to make, or make first: Kampar chicken biscuits or chocolate chip?

As the title to this post suggests, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn goes live tonight. The game honestly grew on us, and took a damn long time to at that. MMOs-that-both-us-like-going-live-night is a big deal in our house. Celebration food big deal, and leftovers big deal, because, uh, we won't be able to leave our desks for a few days.

Me and Seth both got into beta (I didn't even know there was a beta till he told me), and we've kind of realised how much we like playing MMOs together, that, and we are both kind of excited about the crafting (and the classes in general). Blame it on our tragic nostalgia for Vanguard's crafting system, which is our gold standard for this sort of thing. FFXIV's crafting is somewhere between Vanguard and the assembly-line stuff that permeates the market. The classy stuff is:

a) Crafting and gathering professions are each a character class, just like all the battle classes. Mastering a crafting/gathering profession is as big a deal as mastering say, being an Archer, or a Summoner. Hitting certain levels of crafting professions opens up areas, just like it would with all the battle classes.b) There's no limit on what classes you can take, after picking at least one to level up to 10. Cook-Fisher-Botanist-Weaver-Alchemist-Pugilist? Sure!c) They have player housing. That means we can obsessively craft furniture, tapestries and ikebana till we drop.d) There's crafting and gathering and battling armour -- that's a lot of crafting and exploring new areas for new ingredients to do. Also, dyes. Seth and I have an obsessive relationship with dyes. We blame it on Warhammer.e) There are individual skills that level up with you for crafting and gathering. How cool is that?

But wait! Wouldn't it be easier for you to buy a book on crocheting and some yarn?What. And then how do I add +1 to everything?

I don't think so, actually. And winter is coming. Perfect time for pickles!

There's a homecrafts person who is making and selling homemade koji and miso in my neighbourhood, but she's just starting up shop. Waiting on her website veeeeery carefully so I can get some of this stuff. I had a Koji-seasoned bento from her stall the other day. Wasn't too impressed with the bento itself, but the amazake was very nice. I'd love to make some.